‘Christmas Clash’ wrestling show back again

By STEVE CLARK - Thursday, November 30, 2017 8:14 AM

In character as KC Thunder, Kasey Geyer (foreground) gazes out at the crowd during last year’s Christmas Clash wrestling show. The event will return this week on Saturday, Dec. 2, at First Merchants Bank Heritage Hall on the Huntington County Fairgrounds at 7 p.m. Geyer, a Huntington native, says this year’s show will help support local charity Mittens for Millions, which collects and distributes winter apparel to those in need. Photo by Steve Clark.

Kasey Geyer got so busy planning last year’s Christmas Clash that he forgot to check if his wrestling boots still fit.

Geyer wrestled professionally for many years and sought to bring a wrestling event to his hometown, Huntington. To that end, he set out to organize the first-ever Christmas Clash, a W.A.R. Wrestling event. In addition to helping arrange the show,

Geyer competed in it, wrestling under his longtime stage name, “KC Thunder.”Between adopting a demanding training regimen to get himself prepared for his match and planning the event, Geyer neglected to take a minute to try on his old wrestling kicks. His family had given him the boots as a birthday gift almost 25 years prior. While he had gotten many years of use out of them, it had been a long time since he last tried them on.

This dawned on him the night of the event.

“Fifteen minutes before it’s showtime, before I’m going to go out there and do this thing, I look over at somebody and I go, ‘Oh my God! I hope these boots still fit,’” recalls Geyer. “He goes, ‘What do you mean?’ And I go, ‘Brother, I have not put these boots on in probably five years.’

“And I laced them up and the next couple days I was sore from wearing them, because it’s almost like a gal putting on heels to walk in.”

Soreness aside, the boots did fit. And like that wrestling footwear, Christmas Clash proved to be a fit for Huntington.

As a result, W.A.R. Wrestling decided to bring the event back for a second year, setting this Saturday, Dec. 2, as the return date. This time around, Geyer’s focus has been different. Having maintained a good baseline of fitness since his match last year, Geyer hasn’t had to spend as much time training. Instead, he’s directed those energies toward conceiving of ways to support Huntington with the event.

That line of thinking led Geyer to designate local charity Mittens for Millions as a beneficiary of this year’s show. The nonprofit group collects new and gently used winter apparel for distribution to those in need. It’s a service that Geyer says is sorely needed.

“My God, this morning, I was running my daughter to school and I saw a kid walking to school and the kid had on what amounted to an extremely light jacket,” he remarks, dejectedly.

The assistance that Christmas Clash renders to Mittens for Millions will be twofold, Geyer says. First, a portion of the event’s 50/50 drawing will be donated to the group. Secondly, there will be a donation area at the event for attendees to drop off mittens, gloves, hats and coats for the group to distribute.

And there’s an incentive for being the attendee who donates the most gear. That individual, says Geyer, will receive a special W.A.R. Wrestling prize pack. Included in that pack will be W.A.R. Wrestling clothing, autographed pictures and a gift certificate for a large pizza from Jimmy Pop’s Pizza Shop, in Huntington.“I want everybody to bring something out there that night for Mittens for Millions; I want it to be a big drive for him,” says Geyer, referring to the group’s co-founder, Jeff Dyke, a longtime friend. “I want him to get so much stuff he has to load it in a freaking U-Haul.

“I really, really want that. I believe in his cause.”In addition to helping out Mittens for Millions, Geyer says he’s thrilled that Christmas Clash can support a local business in Jimmy Pop’s, which is providing the event’s food and drink, and a local group in the Huntington County Fairgrounds Committee, which helps maintain First Merchants Bank Heritage Hall on the fairgrounds, where the event is taking place.

“I’ll run their event and I’ll get as many people out there as I can to see the place,” says Geyer, referring to the fairgrounds and promoting their facilities.

Geyer’s role as a promoter, both of Huntington and of Christmas Clash, will take a backseat to his role as KC Thunder on Saturday. He’ll be hopping in the ring to face Papa Dingo in the evening’s second-to-last match.

Prior to that, Cody Jones and Jay Maynard will be squaring off in the night’s first bout, followed by “Officer” Rod Street and “No Shame” Jimmy Shane, then Tanu the Savage and Pat Monix. The fourth match of the event will see a pair of two-man teams, The Dirty, featuring Austin Manix and Brandon Edwards, and The Classics, featuring Cody Hawk and Dusty Dillinger, do battle inside the ropes.

Before Geyer’s tilt, “Unchained” Brandon Day and “Voodoo King” Mojo McQueen will face off in the Respect title match. In the final contest of the evening, “BMF” Kyron and “Dark Star” Matt Taylor will duel in the W.A.R. title match.

Advance tickets are available for purchase at Jimmy Pop’s and www.WarWrestling.com. Tickets will also be available for purchase at Heritage Hall the night of the event.

The doors open at 6 p.m., with the clashing beginning at 7 p.m. Geyer says to expect a fast-paced show with no lulls. He also stresses that the show is geared toward the entire family.

“There’s no risqué stuff, there’s no profanity, nothing like that,” he states.

Geyer is hopeful for another successful event – one that not only supports people from Huntington, but entertains them, too.

“That’s the number one thing for me,” he says, “is people walk away and go, ‘Dang, that was good. That was so good. I can’t wait till next year.’”